JOHN
474
JOHN
ics", "Metaphysics", and "The Soul", also a
treatise entitled "Qusestio in Averroem de substantia
orbis". The author is strongly inclined towards the
doctrines of Averroes. He defends the principle of
twofold truth, according to which what is false in phi-
losophy may be true in theology, or vice versa. Thus,
he says, the eternity of the world is demonstrated in
philosophy to be true and yet in theology it is false;
according to this principle, we are to believe that the
world was made, while we know that it was not made.
Again, he holds the Averroistic doctrine that there is
only one intellect, which is common to all men, and is in
no sense a part of the individual soul. Consequently,
he is obliged to maintain that the immortality of the
individual soul cannot be proved in philosophj'. In his
discussion of the nature and operations of the human
mind he takes sides with the determinists, who deny
that the will is free. Finally, the .werroist author of
these commentaries is no friend of the Thomistic
school. He tries to belittle the reputation of St.
Thomas, and to prove him inferior to Averroes. Con-
sidering, therefore, the spirit and tendency of these
works, one is inclined to assign them to the turbulent,
anti-papal author of the " Defensor pacis ", and not to
the theologian and canon who, for all we know, trou-
bled himself as little about the intellectual warfare
going on between Thomists and Averroists as he did
about the political conflict between Pope John XXII
and Louis of Bavaria. The commentaries mentioned
above and the "Qusestio" were pubUshed in Venice,
1497, 1525, etc.
De Wulf, Histoire de la phil. mediev. (Louvain, 1902), .372 aqq. : Hauread, Histoire de la phil. scoL, II (Paris, 1880), 2nd part, 281; Feret, La iaculte de thcologie de Paris. Ill (Paris, 1896). 125, 273; Valois, Jean de Jandun et Marsile de Padoue, auteurs du Defensor pacis (Paris, 1906).
William Turner.
John of Matha, Saint. See Trinitarian Order.
John of Montecorvino, a Franciscan and founder of the Catholic mission in China, b, at Montecorvino in Southern Italy, in 1246; d. at Peking, in 132S. Being a member of a religious order which at that time was chiefly concerned with the conversion of unbelievers, and was commissioned by the Holy See to preach Christianity especially to the Asiatic hordes then threatening the West, he devoted himself to the Eastern missions, first that of Persia. In 1286 Argun, the khan or ruler of this kingdom, sent a request to the pope through the Nestorian bishop. Bar Sauma, to send Catholic missionaries to the Court of the great Chinese emperor, Kiibldi Khan ( 1260-94) , who was well disposed towards Christianity. About that time John of Montecorvino came to Rome with similar promismg news, and Nicholas IV entrusted him with the impor- tant mission to Farther China, where about this time Marco Polo, the celebrated traveller, still lingered. He started on his journey in 1289, provided with letters to the Khan Argun, to the great Emperor Kiibldi Khan, to Kaidu, Prince of the Tatars, to the King of .Armenia and to the Patriarch of the Jacobites. His companions were the Dominican Nicholas of Pistoia and the merchant Peter of Lucalongo. From Persia he went by sea to India, in 1291, where he preached for thirteen months and baptized about one hundred persons. Here also his companion, Nicholas, died. Travelling by sea from Meliapur, he reached China in 1294, only to find that Kublai Khan had just died, and Timurleng (1294-1307) had succeeded to the throne. Though the latter did not embrace Christianity, he threw no obstacles in the way of the zealous missionary, who, in spite of the opposition of the Nestorians already settled there, soon won the confidence of the ruler. In 1299 he built a church at Peking and in 1:505 a .second opposite the imperial palace, together with workshops and dwellings for two hundred persons. He gradually bought from heathen parents about one hundred anil
fifty boys, from seven to eleven years of age, instructed
them in Latin and Greek, wrote psalms and hymns for
them, and then trained them to serve Mass and sing in
the choir. At the same time he familiarized himself
with the native language, preached in it, and trans-
lated into Chinese the New Testament and the Psalms.
Among the six thousand converts of John of Monte-
corvino was a Nestorian king named George, of the
race of the priest John, a vassal of the great khan,
mentioned by Marco Polo. After he had worked
alone for eleven years, a German associate, Arnold
of Cologne, was sent to him (1304). In 1307
Clement V, highly pleased with the missionary's
success, sent seven Franciscans who were commis-
sioned to consecrate John of Montecorvino Arch-
bishop of Peking and chief archbishop {summus
arch iepisco pus) of all those countries; they were
themselves to be his suffragan bishops. Only three of
these envoys arrived safely: Gerardus, Peregrinus,
and Andrew of Perugia. They consecrated John in
1308 and succeeded each other in the See of Zaiton,
established by Montecorvino. In 1312 tliree more
Franciscans arrived from Rome as suffragans. John
of Montecorvino departed this life (1328) honoured
as a saint by Christian and heathen.
Our chief information about him and his work is found in two letters written in 1305 and 1306, printed in Wadding. Annales Minorum. VI (Rome, 1733), 69-72, and Mosheim, Hisloria Tar- tarorum (Hehnstadt, 1741), append, n. 44 and 45. There is an English translation of these letters in Yule, Cathay and the Way Thither. 1 (London, 1866), 197-209. Biographical notices are to be foxuid, moreover, in Remusat, Nouveaux melanges asiatiques, II (Paris, 1829), 193-98: Kunstmann, Die Mis- sionen in Indien und China im 14- Jahrhundrrt in Hist.-polit- Blatter, XXXVII (Slunich, 1856), 229-41; Hue, Le Christia- nismeen Chine, I (Paris, 1857), 383-433; Hetd, Die Kolonien der riimischen Kirche in den TartarenVtndem im IS. u. 14. Jahrh. in Zeilschriftfiir diehislor. Thcol.,XX\Ill (Gothn, 1858,286-
96- Otto Hartig.
John of Montesono, theologian and controversial- ist, b. at Monzon, Spain; dates of birth and death un- known. He joined the Dominicans probably in Va- lencia. In 13S3 he was lecturing on theology at the cathedral in that city. Thence he went to Paris, taught in the convent of St. James there, and ob- tained the mastership of theology in 1387. Here he entered the field of controversy on the question of the Immaculate Conception, which w-as not then defined. Maintaining the proposition that the Blessed Virgin was conceived without sin was heretical, he aroused against him the faculty of the Paris university. They condemned fourteen propositions from his lectures, warned him, first privately, then publicly, to retract, and when he refused carried the matter to Pierre Orgement, Bishop of Paris, who promulgated a decree of excommunication against all who should tlefend the forbidden theses; and the faculty issued letters con- demnatory of Montcsono's errors and conduct, which Denifle conjectures, from their acerbity of speech, were written by Pierre d'Ailly. Denifle also says Montesono would not have been condemned had he not declared the doctrine of the Immaculate Concep- tion heretical. Montesono appealed to Clement VIII, who cited him and the university faculty to Avignon. Later, foreseeing that the case was going against him, Montesono, despite the command under pain of ex- communication to remain at Avignon, secretly with- drew into Aragon, then went to Sicily, changing his allegiance to LTrlian Xl, Clement's rival. There and in Spain, whither he afterwards returned, he filled sev- eral important positions. In 1412 .Vlfonso, Duke of Gandia, chose him as head of a legation sent to defend his claim to the crown of Aragon. Besides four works against Clement's claim as pope, he wrote: "Tracta- tus de Conceptione B. Virginis ", a number of sermons, and various opiisctda in the vernacular.
QuKTiF AND EtHARD, ficriptares Ord. Prml.. I (Paris, 1719). 091: HuRTKR. Nomenclator; Denifle, Charlul., Ill (Paris. 1894). 486-533.
V. F. O'Daniel.
